[424] Hunch = to shove with the elbow. “Then Jack’s friends began to hunch and push one another.” Arbuthnot’s Hist. of John Bull, ch. xiii.
[425] Usually written Haïda in conjunction with the word ghit, “go away”.
[426] Cloak.
[427] The Grand Vizier, Kiuprili, died a few months later.
[428] Vani Effendi was a celebrated preacher in the Court of Mahomed IV, and is said even to have brought the Emperor to tears. As in other parts of Europe, fanatical preaching was rife at this time, and in Turkey we find also Sabatai Sevi, who tried to make himself out to be the Messiah, and whose followers exist to this day. Vani attacked him furiously, and tried to convert the Jews to Mahommedanism. He was very instrumental in putting down the use of wine, and before the standard of the Turkish army he prayed with fanatical enthusiasm.
[429] Brusa, in Bithynia.
[430] Van, in Kourdistan.
[431] Araf is the Mohammedan form of Purgatory.
[432] Adam, Turkish for “a man”.
[433] Maurocordato, the dragoman to Ahmed Kiuprili and the Ottoman Government, was a distinguished member of this Greek family in Scio. His mother was the daughter of a rich cattle merchant, Skarlato by name, and by this name he is perhaps better known. He studied medicine at Padua, and was Court physician as well as dragoman. He was employed on many important diplomatic missions, and signed the Peace of Carlowitz between the Porte and Austria.